For a few months now there have been many rumors claiming that Apple is going to launch the iPhones a bit earlier than expected this year. Apple doesn’t always stray from tradition, it has almost always given a one year gap between subsequent product launches. However, The Wall Street Journal reports today that Apple has started speeding up hiring in Asia, its particularly bringing more engineers and supply chain managers onboard primarily because it wants to expedite product launches.

It is reported that Apple has even reached out to individual engineers in order to get them to work for it. The mass hirings are said to be focused in Taiwan and China, with engineers being poached from rivals such as HTC. It isn’t known how many exactly has Apple hired, but the spree does appear to be big enough to get this scribe’s attention.

It is also said that these engineers are required to help out with work on iPhone and iPad parts and that supply chain managers are necessary to keep a close eye on suppliers that have been heavily criticized this past year. The report isn’t entirely clear on the matter, is Apple simply going to reduce the time between product launches or is it going to launch more products? Or both? The CEO did say earlier this year that Apple is going to jump into new product categories, could this be the start of that? Time will tell.